Kempton Park redevelopment: Dead or buried?

A recent article by Greg Wood in The Guardian provided a timely reminder that the controversial Jockey Club Racecourses (JCR) scheme to redevelop Kempton Park racecourse for 3,000 houses may be best filed under ‘buried’, rather than ‘dead’.

The non-committal language – the project was deemed ‘unlikely’ according to a spokesperson for Spelthorne Borough Council – will have resonated with anyone who has ever dealt with planning applications, whether for or against, and there are concerns that the racecourse performing ‘strongly’ in terms of the Green Belt may find itself usurped by the increased value of the land, and in turn its value to JCR, since the scheme was first revealed in January 2017.

The strong performance relates to an assessment done by the local council, which examined every parcel of Green Belt in the Borough to assess the extent to which each piece fulfils the five purposes of Green Belt land:

• to check the unrestricted sprawl of large built-up areas
• to prevent neighbouring towns merging into one another
• to assist in safeguarding the countryside from encroachment
• to preserve the setting and special character of historic towns
• to assist in urban regeneration, by encouraging the recycling of derelict and other urban land

It’s clear to see how swapping the racecourse for housing would challenge the first four points, though there are some who might – tongue in cheek – suggest that the bulldozing of the racecourse would help fulfil the fifth criteria.

The SaveKemptonPark and KeepKemptonGreen protest groups have matched the vocal objections of (mainly National Hunt) trainers with affirmative actions, encouraging residents – and, most importantly, helping them practically – to fill out the appropriate forms for subsequent consultation documents, but have the trainers backed up their initial concerns by sending more horses to the track? And have racegoers showed their support by voting with their feet?

The tables above, which show only data for jumps meetings, suggest that that hasn’t been the case. In terms of average field size, the pre-scheme announcement levels of 2015 and 2016 have not increased in nearly two calendar years since.

Meanwhile, with the caveat that 2015 included an extra 11,000 attendees due to free entry on BetBright Chase Day – just two weeks after Tony McCoy announced he was retiring – and the remaining fixtures of 2018 have been predicted using the previous year’s figures, attendances have fallen to a much greater degree than horse racing attendances in general.

Objections

Nicky Henderson, whose father Johnny got together a group of investors to buy Cheltenham for £240,000 in 1963 when the course was threatened with being taken over by property developers, has launched several heart-felt protestations against the development. The victory of Might Bite in last year’s King George VI Chase, the biggest race in Kempton’s calendar and a day which accounted for 37% of its total jumps attendance last year, provided Henderson with the loftiest of Speakers’ Corner platforms.

“It’s ridiculous, this is a proper racecourse with its own unique characteristics and I’ll go down with it,” he declared. “They will be taking me in the bulldozer because I’ll be handcuffed to the final ditch!” For those with short memories, that’s the penultimate obstacle on the far side, rather than the one that Might Bite tried to take with him when falling with the 2016 Feltham at his mercy.

Might Bite runs in the distinctive silks of The Knot Again Partnership, a group of 10 owners which includes some of the Happy Campers, who owned My Tent Or Yours before selling him to J.P. McManus, and the Not Afraid Partnership, who owned Bobs Worth.

The latter group was headed by Malcolm Kimmins, a former director at Newbury Racecourse. That track knows plenty about redevelopment, having partnered with David Wilson Homes (part of the Barratt group) to build 1,500 new homes on and around the racecourse – all while racing continued (relatively) unaffected.

For £825,000, it’s now possible to buy a seventh floor, three-bedroom apartment in Frankel House, one of the latest developments at Newbury, though the thoroughbred himself would have had trouble trying to turn around in its 6 x 10 ft bathroom.

And there was something of the horse’s bullish performance in the 2000 Guineas about Councillor Hilary Cole’s response to objections by local residents about the height of the development on the eastern side of the racecourse.

Cole, who lives in leafy Chieveley, said: “I understand residents' concerns but I don't believe the impact will be as severe as the residents fear.

"[These residents] have lived in splendid isolation, where they are down a track at the eastern end, for a number of years and it will be a change, and people don't like change."

The plans were approved.

A slim silver lining for those residents is that Newbury Racecourse station, which had previously been like arriving at Stalag Luft III, will undergo a renovation.

Cole’s comments are in contrast to those of Spelthorne Councillor Ian Harvey, who strongly opposes the proposed scheme at Kempton, but the words of former Spelthorne Council member Robert Watts underline the need to keep an eye on the ball. He said: “Currently with government policy, even if housing need exceeds the area we have to build on, we are not allowed to build on Green Belt land.

“Our policy at the moment is to protect our Green Belt, unless they can provide very special circumstances.”

You don’t have to look too deeply into those comments to envisage a future which includes a change in policy, some very special circumstances, or a relaxing of the Green Belt boundary.

Indeed, the Campaign to Protect Rural England reveals that almost 460,000 homes have been pencilled in for Green Belt land since 2013.

What’s the solution?

Though Timeform’s position is staunchly against any proposed development of Kempton Park, which JCR bought in 1994, my own feelings are more opaque.

Sadly, it’s a fact that the UK needs more housing – an earlier report suggested that Spelthorne needs to build between 543 and 725 new homes per year until 2033 in order to meet its housing needs.

Times change, and the land on which Kempton Park sits has already altered significantly from the estate where racing first took place in 1878.

But if the Green Belt boundaries are relaxed, the cash and property-rich JCR, which made a profit of £21.9m in 2017, needs to tread very carefully.

Their members need to realise that what the area around Kempton needs, above all, is not luxurious, overpriced apartments with flashy rooftop terraces, but affordable housing that benefits local people.

While the current backdrop of trees is pleasant, there can also be a beauty in well-designed buildings, and an even more inherent goodness in using appropriate parcels of land to provide much-needed homes – not houses – for people who desperately need them in a time when homeless levels are rising.

The issue, of course, is whether this area is an appropriate parcel of land.

Personally, I would rather areas of greenery were preserved, but if they have to be developed, then JCR needs to prove that they are in touch with the real world, and that any development needs to have an intrinsic value that is at least as great as the Green Belt land that it would replace. That means real affordable housing, rather than empty promises and token gestures.

Perhaps there is a compromise.

I’ve been lucky enough to visit Happy Valley in Hong Kong, which is surrounded by imposing residential towerblocks but has a crackling atmosphere. I’ve also visited Redcar, which is flanked on one side by a graveyard, and Southwell, which has a golf course weaving through it. Though they’re hardly direct comparisons, I know which I prefer.

The September visit of Enable and Crystal Ocean enhanced the profile of Kempton’s all-weather track this year, but attendance figures for the course’s all-weather meetings provide a clear indication that there is not enough public interest in the generally low-grade fare that spans the course of the calendar year, which feels designed to provide little more than a betting opportunity every 30 minutes.

Though it would need cast-iron assurances about a secure long-term future of the National Hunt course at Kempton, the track could be reconfigured, as it was at the start of this century, but this time the all-weather track could be ripped up and the National Hunt loop redirected in-front of the pond.

Okay, the course would lose its triangular configuration, but it would still be right-handed, it would still benefit from better ground than near-neighbour (and suggested alternative venue for the King George) Sandown, and it would ensure that Kempton Park didn’t lose the memories of Mill House, Arkle, Desert Orchid (pictured below in 1989 when emulating Wayward Lad's three wins), Kauto Star (pictured above with his statue at the course) et al.

It’s important to remember that the value of Kempton as a National Hunt course is as much in the achievements of the horses as it is the setting.

I have no desire to see a new all-weather venue near Newmarket, but this half-development, with a sizeable number of new homes being built (infrastructure permitting) on the land beyond the pond, would surely free up sufficient funds for such a project, should JCR deem that to be a worthwhile use of their proposed extra £500m investment in racing over the next decade.

Roger Weatherby, the Jockey Club's senior steward, said: "We must show leadership with the assets we have and, where merited, take tough decisions to help our sport to keep moving forwards."

One decision is key: racing must not abandon Kempton Park. After Cheltenham and Aintree were saved, two courses that are also part of the JCR portfolio, they flourished because of a drive and ambition to invest in National Hunt racing at both venues.

Whatever happens at Kempton, it needs the same love and attention.